We've been hyping the Pentagram wall calendar lately and almost forgot to mention Typodarium, another great font/calendar for 2010.

Foundries and designers from all over the world were asked to contribute to the page-a-day project and the result is a desk-worthy daily dose of type from some of the best.

Among them you'll find some Veer favorites, including Eloquent (Jason Walcott), Oscilloscope (Luke Prowse), Adios and Miss Stephams (Alejandro Paul), Pilo Thin (Kenneth Pilo), and Pill Gothic (Christian Robertson).

Designer Jon Klassen has posted about his collaboration with Marc Craste & Studio AKA on their Winter Olympics ad for the BBC. Far flung from the Olympic norm, the animation shuns the usual bright colors and cheering crowds in favor of action, danger, and a wonderfully dark motif.

via Woodward Design

The Society of Typographic Aficionados has issued a call to action to the typographic and design communities through the launch of Font Aid IV. Following the project’s theme of “Coming Together”, participants are encouraged to design an ampersand to be included in an exclusive typeface. The final typeface will be made available for sale through several type distributors, with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders in support of relief efforts in Haiti.

Deadline for submissions is January 29th, 2010.

Express yourself, help the cause, and spread the word.

We've blogged about Project Never before, but we're pleased to announce that (in addition to loving the project) Veer is now an official sponsor.

Project Never is a free awards competition for graphic designers that honors the most creative design concept that never reached production. If you pitched a brilliant but poorly received concept between January 1, 2009 and February 19, 2010, you're eligible to enter.

The winner will receive almost $2,000 in prizes and subscriptions, including 1,500 Veer Marketplace credits, plus a little slice of creative redemption.

Abigail Uhteg from Presse Janvier sent us a link to her video of an epic book printing project she completed over two months at the Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY. See 35 hand-bound books come together in wonderful stop motion.

If you're curious about the printing and binding processes you see in the video, read the start-to-finish details on Abigail's website.

Jim Sutherland is a mad genius. That's the only conclusion we can draw from this deck of cards created using 52 different typefaces. Pretty, right? But that's not all that's going on here.

On every card, the characters representing the card's value (the Js, the 10s, the 8s, the Ks, etc.) are arranged so that they form the card's suit (a diamond, spade, heart, or club). Mad. Genius.

via Fast Company and The Strange Attractor

If you generally shun room service and have an aversion to bellhops, we've got good news. AirBNB is a website that helps you find alternative accommodation in spare rooms (or yachts, or Airstream trailers...) around the world. They recently launched a new Groups feature so you can narrow your search to hosts with similar interests to yours and “travel in your tribe”.

The photography (257 rooms) and graphic design (73 rooms) groups are already well-stocked, and there's even a group for Eames Enthusiasts (43 rooms) – if you're particular about your chairs after a long day of sightseeing.

The website for Behance's 99% conference has been updated with new videos of April event. Among them, a portion of the talk that “expertise theorist” Jason Randal gave about how to acquire new knowledge and become an expert at everything.

And he would know. If you don't have time to watch the video, just skimming Randal's exhaustive bio might inspire you:

“Randal holds a PhD in social psychology and is a member of MENSA. He works in three languages, has published numerous magazine articles and three books including Magic For Professionals and The Psychology of Deception. Randal is a board certified master hypnotherapist, a licensed locksmith, a NAUI master scuba instructor, a licensed special effects technician, and a master certified flight instructor for both airplanes and helicopters...

... a seventh degree black belt master in karate instructed six years for the Chuck Norris karate schools... 3 years as a drill sergeant and hand to hand combat instructor for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. For ten years Jason was a technical adviser and stuntman in Hollywood...”

All of that and he still found time to build his own house (he's a licensed contractor), repair his own helicopter (what!), and tour the lecture circuit. Amazing.

The web is awash in Top [insert # here] of 2009 lists, but this one caught our eye for being pure visual indulgence.

The fifty best comic book covers of the year are counted down, including a series of Marvel issues that portray Wolverine in the artistic styles of of Dali, Van Gogh, and Edward Gorey (our fav, shown above).

There's even one where five different Wolverines are playing poker. Talk about your card sharps.

Link via Drew.

'Tis the season, so some lucky mailboxes are being filled this week with a special gift from Veer: hand-crafted notebooks with covers and dividers sourced from past Veer catalogs. Upcycling has never been so festive.

These lovely Remix notebooks were assembled by our good friends at Uppercase, based on their own series of Eclecto paper goods.

A limited edition run of the Remix notebook will be available in the Veer merch store early in 2010.